by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING â?? After years of complaints from foreign nations and its own citizens, the Chinese government says it plans to fight the acrid smog that fills many of China's cities where some days it is impossible to see more than a few blocks.

The government says it is going to curtail the burning of coal for energy in several areas as well as close factories and ban vehicles that are especially bad polluters. After fighting attempts to disclose how bad pollution is, Beijing says it will make public the 10 cities with the worst air quality on a monthly basis.

The reliance on high-sulfur coal as China's chief energy source and a lack of clean-coal technology is blamed for the extraordinary pollution plaguing China cities.

The United States burns coal as well for energy but uses more hard coal that burns hotter and cleaner and requires "scrubbers" that help prevent particulates, or soot, from being emitted into the air. China's use of cheaper soft coal and its lax enforcement of environmental standards have created clouds of soot that affect millions of people.

China announced Thursday that by 2017 it hopes to have cut total coal consumption to below 65% of its total primary energy use and boost the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 13%. New coal-fired power plants will be banned in areas around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

"It demonstrates some sense of urgency, as five years is better than pushing it to 10 or 30 years," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based private group. "We consume half the world's coal, and much of our air problem is a coal problem."

The powerful Organization Department of China's ruling Communist Party will be involved in performance assessment under the new plan, the government said.

"That will be helpful but must be used in combination with other checks and balances such as mandatory disclosure requirements," said Ma, whose chief worry is whether the government will actually make sure the new standards are implemented.

The announcements form part of a wide-ranging action plan on airborne pollution released Thursday by China's State Council, or cabinet. Environmental advocates said the measures are among the toughest ever proposed by Beijing but said implementation would be difficult in a nation that has long stressed economic growth over environmental protection.

China's current environmental laws are quite strict on paper, but often go unenforced by local officials.

The new plan represents the government's response to public anger over choking smog that blanketed much of the country in January, and which remains a constant danger in many areas. The State Council admitted that pollution was both harming people's health and affecting "social stability."

A study in July indicated that air pollution from burning coal has cut 5.5 years off life expectancy in north China, compared with the less-polluted south. The headline target is to cut certain atmospheric pollutants in Beijing and the surrounding Tianjin and Hebei province area by 25% by 2017 from the 2012 level.

In the scientific language of airborne pollutants, now all too familiar for China's urbanites, Beijing must cut concentration levels of PM2.5, the fine particulate matter under 2.5 microns in diameter that pose the greatest human health risk as they can easily be absorbed into the bloodstream.

In east China, the Yangtse River Delta cluster must cut its PM2.5 levels by 20% by 2017, and the Pearl River Delta in the south by 15%. China's other cities are tasked with reducing levels of larger particulates, called PM10, by 10%.

The new standards show "strong determination by the central government" and a historic recognition of China's over-reliance on coal consumption, said Huang Wei, an energy campaigner at the Beijing office of Greenpeace, an environmental non-profit.

"The public has pushed this debate to a very high level thanks to their outcry for cleaner air and public health protection," she said.

But Huang says there are loopholes. She says there is a lack of specified limits on coal consumption by province, and while eastern coastal regions cut their own coal consumption, they will be permitted to source electricity from other provinces, which may increase coal consumption there and negate improvement in PM2.5 levels.

Public disclosure of air quality levels in China began with the release on social media of readings from the U.S. Embassy's monitoring device in Beijing. Last year, Chinese authorities started releasing their own PM2.5 figures, now collected at 74 cities nationwide.

Another 116 cities will operate PM2.5 monitoring sites by year end, reported the China Daily newspaper. Environmental officials will issue a monthly top ten of the best and worst cities for air quality.

"It will absolutely bring pressure on the worst 10, and be a channel to unite people to get information disclosure and get the government to take action," hoped Huang Wei.

"Doctors said my son needs more sunshine, but when the air quality is bad, I dare not to take him outside," said Zhang, 35. "I wish these new measures will change the air quality in Beijing soon, so that we can live in a good environment and have good health, especially for babies."

Some suggested the situation would not improve without more drastic action.

"Move the capital out of Beijing," wrote Li Yaxiong, an accountant in China's capital, on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like micro-blog. "I guarantee you wouldn't have the troubles of air pollution and traffic congestion."